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"The Beach Flats Community Garden in Santa Cruz received a three-year lease extension.The city had a year-to-year lease with the Seaside Company for the garden for 20 years and it was about to come to end in Mid-November. Last night they announced they would extend it.It will mean, city leaders have three years to find a more permanent location, but this deal also means gardeners will have to give up some of their space.Emilio Martinez is one of 17 people who garden at the Community garden. He's Cautiously optimistic about the lease extension.\"Very good! Thank God, everything came out good,\" Martinez said.In an effort to respond to community outcry about gardeners losing their plots, the city hosted a meeting Tuesday night to discuss a more permanent solution, which includes purchasing the land.\"The most important thing is we now got some time and it gives us a chance to explore options. I think buying some of the existing land, all of it, part of it, is on the table from the city side. I know the Seaside Company has some reservations about that, but we have three years now,\" Santa Cruz Mayor, Don Lane said.\"The property is not for sale. It's never been for sale. It won't be for sale in the future. However, on Tuesday, the Santa Cruz Seaside company revised our offer-free land in Santa Cruz that Could be used for a temporary Beach Flats community garden,\" Seaside Company Spokesman, Kris Reyes said.The Seaside Company says 16,000 square feet of the 26,000 square foot land is available under the offer, but gardeners would have to give up some space.\"We've revised our offer because of the leadership that came from Santa Cruz in relation to working toward a permanent solution. We really want to support that. It's really up to the gardeners to decide whether the offer is good enough for them or not,\" Reyes said.\"The Seaside Company is going to make use of a slice of the property along Third Street so the plots that are right there will have to move. But the bulk of the land that is the garden will remain in the garden,\" Reyes said.Gardener Emilio Martinez, still doesn't believe giving up even a portion is in his best interest.\"He's happy for now because. This is where he hangs out with his kids. He helps the people with the little vegetables that he grows and he's happy 25 years here and he's happy it's three years here more.\"The next step is for the city to meet with the gardeners and take a look at the new configuration and see if it'll work for the 17 gardeners.The mayor estimates the potential cost for purchasing the property from the Seaside Company could be between one and two million dollars.\u00A0"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.ksbw.com/article/santa-cruz-community-garden-gets-extended-lease/1057993>